When
Channing Hall Head of School Heather Shepherd visited Nepal’s Sunshine National
School this spring, she saw possibilities for international communication
between the two schools.

During
a three-day home stay with a family in Bhaktapur, about eight miles from the
capital city, Kathmandu,
she visited the private school, Sunshine National School, where seven family
members attend. She took with her pencils and oil and watercolor cards her
students had painted for those students that had the artists’ photographs
attached.

“I
would love to have our school Skype with those students so we can keep the
relationship going,” Shepherd said. “We could see what is going on over there
and learn about different cultures and see our commonalities.”

Her
visit was brief, only a couple hours, with more observation than interaction
since it was examination time, she said. Her plan to return to the school was
cut short when she experienced illness and returned to the United States.

Even so, Shepherd is able to relate the
experience to her students so they can benefit from her experience.

“The
school is about 20 years old and has two campuses — one for older students and
one for younger students, with a rocky road to travel the block between the two
campuses. Everyone there walks. The students are taught in English at the
school, so the kids were very excited to practice their English asking me
questions,” she said.

Most
of the questions asked were her name, where she lives and about Channing Hall. The
300 Sunshine students, like Channing Hall students, wear uniforms and had desks
and materials.

There
were classrooms for the Nepalese students for each grade level.

“It
was interesting to look at their books and see what they were teaching the
students. It was mostly reading, writing and learning their subjects in
English. The kindergartners had cubbies to keep their projects in, much like we
have here,” she said.

Outside on the playground, there was only
cement, no grass, Shepherd said. There was a set of metal monkey bars.

“Much of what they played was with a ball —
throwing it, playing kickball,” she said.

Although they speak English in school, Hindi
still prevailed at home.

“The
older children can speak English and the younger ones are learning, but
everyone else doesn’t know the language. For the most part, women haven’t been
educated in the past. The mom in the family I stayed with doesn’t read nor
write, so it’s becoming important to educate females. At the school I was at,
it was 50-50, males and females,” she said.

Shepherd also added that the school she visited
is considered expensive in Nepal.

“It means that they value education enough to
send their kids there to get a good education,” she said.

She learned that most children live with their
extended families, similar to the family she visited.

“Each family lived on their own level, but all
in the one house,” she said.

The meals included large breakfasts and dinners,
with bread and vegetables or apples in between.

“For
one breakfast, we had curry potatoes and rice pudding — things to us that may
not go together, but are perfectly normal there. They mostly ate Indian food in
their kitchen, which consisted of a sink and two burner plates. They shop at
little stores and pick up just what they need so they shop more often than we
do. They don’t have large stores like we do,” she said.

One of their favorite treats is American
chocolate, so Shepherd said she brought some candy bars with her.

Another
similarity is technology. Even though the family had an older television, it
was never turned on during her visit, Shepherd said.

“They’re
all on Facebook — even those who don’t speak English. They communicate through
Facebook on their iPhones. Everyone, from ages 15 up, used them all the time
just like here. That surprised me,” she said.

It’s
through Facebook that she hopes to maintain communication and hopefully, in the
fall, engage in conversations between the two schools.

“The
older kids were my translators as I don’t know Hindi. It was interesting to learn
so much from the history of the temples that are thousands of years old to how
they are building another school that can withstand earthquakes,” she said.

Nepal experienced a 7.6 earthquake in 2015 and a
4.4 tremor in February this year.

Until
then, Channing Hall had slated a Color Me Kindness Fun Run, where students
wrote messages of kindness on prayer flags that were to be hung during the
fundraiser. The fun run organizers also planned to have colorful chalk,
symbolic of a color festival. The money raised from the May 19 run, with a goal
of $30,000, was earmarked to upgrade Channing Hall’s technology and physical
education equipment, Shepherd said.